QE2 Slides preserved and researched by Brian Price, Cruise Director.

[Clydebuilt1971]

These are just amazing!

In conjunction with the slides that Rob presented at Fairfields in May we have a very concise story of the ship from construction to trials and beyond!!

Cant wait until the next instalment.

Gav

[Lynda Bradford]

Thanks to Brian Price we start the New Year with fabulous pictures with information on the QE2's Turbines and Boilers in John Brown's Engineering, workshop in Clydebank.



"The original engines of QE2 comprised two high pressure turbines built by Parmetrada (Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company) and two low pressure turbines, a double reduction gearbox and a Michell thrust bearing.
Steam to drive the turbines was produced by 3 Foster Wheeler boilers.
 
In this overview of the engineering workshop at John Browns it’s hard to spot anyone doing any work except the two engineers in the foreground. They are standing in the bottom half of the low pressure turbine. Behind them is the lower half of the other low pressure turbine. Down the centre of the turbine base is the turbine shaft, onto which the turbine blades will be attached.
Just behind the bases are the two curved turbine covers for the low pressure turbines.
 
In the background are the three Foster Wheeler boilers which made the steam to drive the turbines."



"The Foster Wheeler boilers under construction.
 
Water, inserted at the base of the boiler, is heated to make steam and then super heated to pressurize it so that it can be used to drive the turbines.
The engineer on the left is standing on a bank of suoerheater elements. On rare occasions during service, the metal used in these superheater elements would deteriorate to the extend that steam would escape and the boiler would lose pressure, the ship would speed, and the element would have to be replaced / repaired."




"The boilers produced 231,000lbs of steam per hour at service speed and 310,000lbs at maximum speed just short of 34 knots.

The steam was heated to 510 degree C (950 degrees F) and pressurized to 850 lbs psi."

Follow links to read more about QE2's Boilers and Steam Turbines or join the discussion on the Foster Wheeler Boilers

[skilly56]

Regarding Reply#13, the lower photo actually shows the stern tube bearing liner being fed into the hull shaft casing, not the 'propeller shaft' as stated.



If one looks at the stud ring on the aft end of the stern tube in the lower photo, it matches the stern tube stud ring shown in the upper photo. Additionally, what is called the 'propeller shaft' in the lower photo has a flange on it's aft end, so it could not be fed into the ship through the stern tube - it is the stern tube liner!
Propeller shafting is designed to transmit huge torque, so it definitely wouldn't be bored out to the extent shown in the photo. (Some models of CPP shafting are bored out centrally for a push/pull rod, but definitely not to this extent).
All the inner sections of shafting in the shaft tunnels have flanges on each end for alignment and the fitted coupling bolts, the holes for which have to be drilled in the workshop. The flange shown has no coupling bolt holes. The inner sections of shafting are always installed from the engine room side because of the flanges, and in the days before hydraulic muff couplings, even the tailshaft was installed from the inboard side because of the large driving flange.

If it was the aftermost section of propeller shafting, where is the spigot for the propeller to mount on?

Once QE2 had CP props & shafting installed at the re-engining layup, the prop shafts did have a large flange on the aft end to mount the CPP hub on, and the connection inside was via hydraulic SKF muff couplings (photo attached). I have also attached photos of the propeller shaft flanges & coupling bolts for the CPP installation, but these would have been similar in size to the fixed pitch propeller shafting.

Cheers,

Skilly

[Lynda Bradford]

Brilliant to have such technical expertise to add to the photos, thanks Skilly.  I will certainly feedback to Brian your explanation. 

[pete cain]

This just gets better & better, what a lovely post Christmas/ New Year pick me up, thanks to Brian & also to
 Skilly for the  - as usual in depth info'.
   Does make you wonder what else is out there waiting to be discovered don't you think ?.

[Lynda Bradford]

Hope you are enjoying seeing these fantastic QE2 slides.  Brian Price has sent these photos for this month's instalment. 

And so now on to the turbines....
First the high pressure turbine:
This rotor with its blades is installed into a casing to ensure that the steam produced by the Foster Wheeler boilers passes through the turbine blades making the rotor spin. The quantity of the steam is controlled in the Turbine Control Room where the Officer on duty makes the ship go faster, slower, forwards or astern by releasing steam into the turbines.
The steam has been heated to 510 degrees C and pressurised to 850 psi, and will make the high pressure turbine spin at 5000 rpm.

In the picture you see the high pressure turbine is being lowered by a piece of ‘old rope’ into the lower half of the PH Turbine Casing.
 

[Lynda Bradford]

and here is the second photo for this month's instalment and the extract from Brian's notes:

The steam loses some pressure after it has passed through the HP Turbine, but still contains valuable energy which can be used in a turbine with much larger blades....The Low Pressure Turbine.

The Low Pressure Turbine has two separate sets of blades for AHEAD and ASTERN. This turbine will rotate at 3300 rpm.
 
The turbines were designed and built by PARMATRADA of Wallsend. The port side engine and starboard side engine each comprised a High Pressure Turbine and a Low Pressure Turbine contained in their own casings and connected to a port and starboard double reduction gears.
 

[Mauretania1907]

Ive been sorting my books and now reading Potter and Frost's book QE2, which has a lot about the design and building of the ship and the fact that Cunard was in dire financial troubles at the time (not to mention John Brown shipyard) They do not mention the 'teething troubles' she had.

[June Ingram]

These are amazing photos to see and thanks very much for the technical details !   

[Lynda Bradford]

Thanks to Brian Price for continuing to let us see the QE2 slides he had rescued.  This month he continues with photos and comments on the images.  These photos would have been taken in John Brown Engineering workshop in Clydebank.

Brian Price

The Double Reduction Gear Housing.....
 
The high pressure turbine runs at 5000 rpm, and the low pressure turbine runs at 3300 rpm. These have to be reduced to approximately 132 rpm which is required for the shaft rotation speed.
 
This process is achieved in the Double Reduction Gear Housing.

Photo 1:

"Pictured here, standing on end is the double reduction gear housing. Front at the top, rear at the bottom.  Inside this housing will run the gears that  will reduce the turbine speeds to that which is required at the propeller shaft. Turbines go in at one end and the propeller shaft out at the opposite end."



"The process being completed here is tooth cutting on the main ‘Bull’ gear. You can’t miss the Yard Number ‘736’ casually chalked on the side of the gear. This gear turns at the same speed as the propeller."



I know nothing about engineering but I appreciate the skills at the John Brown's Engineering Works in Clydebank, which would be a topic on it's own. 

Looking forward to hearing your comments and I know that Brian Price appreciates getting information from forum members who have first hand knowledge of QE2 engines and turbines. 

More photos will be posted over the weekend. 

[Lynda Bradford]

More photos....

"Here the ‘Bull’ gear is lying on it’s side while the double helical (herringbone) gears are cut and checked. In this next picture we see the secondary pinion wheels being checked again."





"Then finally, The Meshing Test: all the gears are coated in black and assembled in the Double Reduction Gear Housing. The gears are then run and any incorrect measurements in the manufacture process can be detected by the black coating rubbing off.
 
The next instalment.....you’ll see the entire Port Side Engine assembled, but still in the workshop."
 
Please post to let Brian know that you are enjoying these unique pictures.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

These are fascinating pictures, and what a miracle it is that they have been preserved for us to marvel at!

Great thanks to Brian for making them available and adding the information which helps us to understand them. Thanks also to Lynda for posting them and keeping the topic flowing.

While I am ignorant of the machinery, I am hugely enjoying the pictures and stories around them.

[Lynda Bradford]

It is amazing to see the men working on the gears and the detail is amazing.   I wonder if anyone recognises the workers!

[Lynda Bradford]

...and here is another fantastic photo that Brian sent this afternoon.

He wrote:

"Here’s the next instalment....
 
Having seen the construction of the boilers turbines and double reduction gears in the last few pictures....... here’s a unique photograph of the port side engine of QE2. It is pictured here in John Brown’s workshop, and all of the components of the engine have been assembled so that it can be ‘bench tested’ prior to it’s placement into the ship.
 
The size of this engine becomes even more apparent if you make a comparison with the four men pictured around the engine."



"At the top of the picture with its curved casing is the low pressure turbine (3,300 rpm), to its right on the inboard side of the engine is the silver casing of the high pressure turbine (5,000 rpm), and in the centre of the picture, the sloping sides of the double reduction gearbox which in its turn,  produced a shaft speed of 132 rpm). This engine produced 55,000 shaft horsepower. Together, both engines produced 110,000 shaft horsepower. I think that’s about the equivalent of about 140 Ferraris 812 Superfasts running at 8,500 rpm!!"
 
Big question....... what happened to them after they were taken out of the ship in Germany and replaced with diesel electric engines?
 
Does anyone know the answer?

Hope, that like me, you are looking forward to seeing more of Brian's collection of QE2 slides. 

 

[Rod]

Fascinating! Just fascinating